Changing Seasons

I usually love the change from summer to fall. I love the colorful leaves, the cozy fires, the rain, the cuddling under blankets. I was enjoying it, until it started getting cold again and then it was rainy and windy. 

I know that we need the rain, but I get tired of being so cold all of the time.

I guess I just need to go shopping for sweaters.

Even though it was cold yesterday, I did love all of the huge clouds.

It was amazing to see a sky filled with massive, puffy clouds.

At least I can enjoy the beauty, 

even if I am shivering the whole time!

My Biggest Project Yet!

I finally finished my biggest project that I have tried so far. I updated a chest that was Jonathan's parents, but they didn't want any more. I called it the green thing because I wasn't really sure what it was other than green...

I have spent a lot of time on pinterest and I love seeing all of the painted furniture and reading the tutorials. I decided  to paint the green thing. I originally thought about painting it a nice creamy off-white color, but after awhile I realized it would just blend in with our white walls and light tan carpets. So, I had to think of a different color... I thought about different shades of grey... but it didn't stick either. Then I knew that it needed to be navy! I talked about doing it and finally started to actually work on it in July.

Getting ready to move it to my parent's house.

All of the random stuff that was in it.

Yes, we have a huge tv and can't afford a tv stand.

After we got the green thing moved out, I started getting just some of the many supplies that I would use for this project. Before anything else could happen, I reattached part of the interior that broke off.

Wood glue is a wonderful thing!

 I left the chest out in the hot sun and the old green paint got all bubbly and weird. The lesson learned is if you really like a piece of furniture, don't let it cook outside in the sun. Lucky for me, I was going to strip the old paint anyways!

Before:

Farewell green paint!

Ready for some love!

 The paint came off really easily on the lid and three of the sides. Jonathan saw it at this stage and was confused by the stripes.

The front was the hardest part to strip off the old paint.

I spent a few hours on stripping just the front.

I used some pretty harsh chemicals to get rid of the old paint.

 Once I was done with all of the stripping and cleaning, I could finally get some paint back onto the chest (at this point it was no longer the green thing). I was really nervous/paranoid about painting. I kept worrying that it would be terrible. (I had these feelings later in the project...)

All prepped and ready to paint!

The primer went on beautifully! I got great coverage with the spray paint and nothing horrible happened!

Next up was the blue. I was again paranoid, so I made my mom supervise me at first and then got comfortable enough to do it all by myself. I was rather concerned when the color was a bright blue rather than navy, but I just kept thinking that it will be better with more coats and I was right.

A few coats later, the chest was navy and gorgeous!

The most anticipating part of this project for me was to find the perfect knobs. From the very beginning of this project, I knew that I wanted the knobs to each be different. Lucky for me, Anthropologie has the perfect knobs for me. They have my favorite colors and some great patterns. This was one part that I knew I needed my mom's help again because she knows my style and she can visualize how the finished product will look.

These were the possible knobs.

These ones made the final cut!

One of the final steps was to seal the chest. I did a lot of research and because this was going to be our tv stand again, I decided that sealing it would be good to protect the paint on it. I saw one tutorial that used a sponge roller, so I went ahead and used one. I was paranoid about my coats being too thick, so I made sure I only had a small amount of sealer on the roller. It was horrible! There were so many air bubbles on it that it totally changed how the chest looked. It was an ugly blue thing! I didn't take any pictures of the horrible bubbly chest because I was so distraught! My mom came out and helped me sand down the bubbles and then put a fresh coat of paint.

Re-sanding the chest.

 The second time we applied the sealer, we used a nice brush. It looked so much better!

The next thing to do was paint the interior of the chest and lid. The chest was lined with old ivy paper and I just wasn't feeling it.

No more ivy!

Before I could attach the new feet, I had to take off the last one. Three of them came off easily, but the fourth one would not budge! I got really creative in trying to get it loose. I used the dremel to get some separation between the chest and the foot. It kind of helped, especially when I started to chisel away at the foot. Eventually, I got enough leverage and unscrewed the foot. Next up, was adding the pretty new feet!

We did have a small problem with the new feet. The bolts that they came with were too big and really short. At this point, I was ready to just glue them on and call it good. (I was really ready to be done with this project). I told Jonathan about my plan, and he told me that we should get the proper sized bolts because we needed to it the right way. I'm glad that we did it the right way. It was worth it.

Using the drill press to make deeper holes.

My favorite part of working on the chest was figuring out where the knobs would go. It took about two dozen different combinations and then we found the perfect fit!

The first try!

They are so very pretty!!!

One of the finishing touches on the chest was trimming the bolts on the knobs. It took so long, but it made it so much easier to fill the chest with all of our games.

 When I started, the head of the dremel looked like the one on the left. I used one and a half heads to cut through all the bolts.

The extra pieces of bolts.

 The chest was finally done!!! All we needed to do was move it back home.

My baby finally came home!!!

 Our chest is now the home of all of the games we rarely play. I have storage in the closet again!

Our tv looks so much better now that it's off of the floor.

I am so glad that this long project is finally done and it looks so good. It was quite an adventure with all of the steps and now I feel like I can tackle another furniture project. Watchout coat rack, you're next!

Boys Will Be Boys!

Almost a week and a half ago, Chris and Annie's cute little family came to visit with the cousins. Garrett and Seth (as usual) were so happy to be reunited. Towards the end of the visit, it was only Annie, Clara, the boys, and me at home. We let the boys play in the backyard by themselves. Well, after a while I heard a loud noises and instantly knew that they were throwing big rocks onto the cement. I ran out and caught them doing exactly that, along with a bunch dirt and little rocks all over the little patio. They were so happy and dirty that I just couldn't get mad at them, but I did make them keep the dirt in the garden box.

Seth's thinking about throwing the dirt onto the patio again.

Yes, Garrett is not wearing pants, but he is wearing underwear!

These two are such cute buddies!

Three Magical Days!

This time last week, Jonathan and I were at Disneyland for three days with all of my siblings and their boys. This was the first time that all four of us kids went on a trip together without our parents.
We missed them, but we still had a lot of fun!

It started out with a long, long drive through the middle of nowhere.

We loved this bumper sticker! "My other car drives itself. Google"
Unfortunately, it was not one of Google's cars.

We made it to the hotel and had a great view of the park.

The next morning, we all met before playing.

I was perfectly safe thanks to Garrett's monkey leash.

Garrett and Seth were so happy to be reunited. They are best buds!

Everyone but Amy and Mike had early morning passes, so we took Garrett with us to play in Fantasyland with Seth, Kyle, Chris, and Andy.

Garrett was mapping out our morning.

My brothers are such cute dads!

Three happy cousins!!!

 Kyle wanted to go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride after Dumbo. We got into line and Garrett wasn't very happy. As we got closer to being inside, he started saying "No, Mr. Toad, no!" Well, I didn't feel like traumatizing him so we went on the carousel instead.

We then tried out It's A Small World. It was quite the experience.
It started out with three happy boys all in the front of the boat.

As soon as we started going inside, Garrett started freaking out.

(A few months ago, Garrett saw an episode of Curious George about being afraid of the dark.

Now Garrett is afraid of the dark.) 

It got to the point that Jonathan grabbed him and helped him calm down by convincing him that we were going as fast as we could. Seth got a little concerned by how scared Garrett was, so he hid in the front of the boat. While that was going on, Kyle was loving it! 

Seth taking cover!

Jonathan and I took some time to go on some bigger rides without the kids in California Adventure.

We have a tradition of possing for pictures on the rides.
I couldn't help but blow a kiss to my sweetie!

After going on the Toy Story ride, Jonathan pretended he was Woody.

Jonathan and I were really boring that first night and went back to the hotel before 8, while the kids got back together for the night.

Right before this picture was taken,
Ty was bragging about how he wasn't even tired.

The second day was even better than the first. Everyone took naps, so we could actually stay until closing.

We started our day with Chris and Annie in California. They went on Tower of Terror while Seth almost said hi to Minnie Mouse. Next up was Bug Land. Seth couldn't decide to ride with his parents or us. He decided to ride with us.

It started out great but...

he quickly decided that it was too much to have so many adults with him.

Annie did some more rides with Seth while Chris, Ry, Jonathan, and I went on the big rides.

I'm still not sure who was more excited to be at Disneyland.

Jonathan gave me a loving look, while Ry was rocking out.

What made this second day at Disneyland even more magical and memorable was watching Endeavor fly right over us. Jonathan was really paranoid that we were going to miss it while we were on Splash Mountain with Ryan and Annie, but we ended up timing it perfectly to see it fly over us on the edge of Frontierland.

There was a woman loudly saying there it is! At first I didn't see it, so I didn't believe her.
You can see it just over the trees.

That huge crowd was gathered in between the two parks about an hour before the Shuttle flew over. It was really weird seeing that many people standing around Disneyland.

We did a little more playing at the park before heading over to the Rain Forest Cafe for a late lunch with my brothers and their families.

Ry is such a pro with younger boys.

A lovey group on the Jungle Cruise.

Seth got his Mickey ears! We kept telling him how good he looked in his ears and he would point his ears rather than the ones on his head. It was adorable!

This was my first experience at the Rain Forest Cafe and it was so neat!

The scenery and atmosphere makes it a fun place to eat. We were luck enough to be entertained by a very rare type of monkey, the Tyler monkey.This Tyler monkey loved climbing up the vines of the tree next to the table and annoy it's Uncle Chris. It would calm down and cuddle with Seth, but that was about the only time it sat still!

Climbing up the tree.

I'm not sure why, but the Tyler monkey started poking Chris in the eye.

I told you he could calm down. (It only lasted for a few seconds though.)

After lunch we all ended up going to the Lego store. It was so cool!
There were big huge lego sculptures outside as well as inside the store.

I really want this in my apartment. Do you think it would be too much though?

Jonathan freaked out when he saw that there was an entire wall with assorted lego pieces for sale.

This is how I want to store legos when we have boys.

Adorable Kyle and Gandalf the Grey.

Jonathan had to have a picture too!

I'm almost as strong, don't you think?

After the Lego store, everyone headed back to their hotels for naps so we could stay up later.
Amy and Mike saved us a great spot for Fantasmic. I forgot how amazing that show was. This was Jonathan's first time seeing it and I think it will now be a tradition for us to see it when we come to the park.
The boys had glow sticks and Garrett taught Seth to use his like a wiggly sword. Tyler got a long strand of them hooked together and used them like a whip. Garrett was swinging his little glow stick at Ty, and Ty ended up using his whip on Garrett. Garrett was stuned and didn't make a sound (weird), while Andy gave Tyler a look that our Dad used on us when we were growing up. It was hilarous!

Chris being a creeper.

Captain Hook fighting Peter Pan.

The view across the water after the show.

After the show, Tyler went on Materhorn and Thunder Mountain with us.

That boy LOVES rollercoasters!

One of these days, Ty will get that sword out of the stone!

Our last day was nice and relaxed even though the crowds swelled that day. Jonathan and I had done all the big rides that we wanted to the previous days so we didn't have to be in any long lines. We went ahead got fast passes for Star Tours, and then went on over to watch Captain EO. All I can say is WOW! It was unlike anything I have ever seen and is obviously from the 80s. WOW! I have seen it once and never need to see again.

Right after this picture, they announced no flash photography and
the people behind us teased us for just using our flash.

I still can't believe I actually sat through this.

 After that experience we went on Star Tours again. It is so cool and now you don't always go to the same place. We've gone on it 4 times since it reopened and have yet to have the same trip.

After our morning in Tomorrowland, we spent some time in Bug Land with Seth, so Chris and Annie could have an hour to themselves.

This kid is a climber!

No tears at all!

After going on a couple of rides, Seth was getting hungry so we went over to Cars Land and ate some snacks. While we were sitting at Flo's, Red (the firetruck) came out and Seth wanted to meet him. So, Jonathan got some good practice meeting characters with Seth. Red blew his horn right before it was Seth's turn and he did not like it one bit! They also went and met Mater and that went so much better.

We did a few more rides on our own like Soarin' Over California and the Tiki Room. We met up later with Andy and Amy and Tyler decided to come with us and go on Jungle Cruise and eat dinner.

I think if you can do a pull up you can go on the
ride even if you are an inch too short!

 After dinner we were going to take Ryan and Tyler on the brand new Cars ride, but as soon as we got there it was broken down and they didn't know when it would be fixed.

I just love all of the neon lights in Radiator Springs!

Well, we tried to keep our spirits up and tried to go on a different ride, but they closed it down for the World of Color show. We struck out with that park, so we went back to Disneyland. We met up with Andy and an old family friend, Jeff. He works at the front gate and when he heard about our story in the other park, he decided to call Mickey to see if he could work some magic. Mickey ended up giving us front of the line passes that work on any ride in Disneyland! That made us all feel so much better! So Andy and the boys headed over to Splash Mountain and we tried to meet up with Chris, Annie, and Amy.

This was their view for the firework show.

We tried, but couldn't find them. Instead of watching the show through a big tree, we went on Thunder Mountain. The fireworks were absolutely magical as we were on the ride! This is going to be my new Disneyland tradition! After taking the longest way possible, we met up with them and told them about our awesome passes from Jeff. Chris was so excited because there were a few rides that he wanted to go on but didn't because the lines were too long. The three of us headed to Star Tours while Amy and Annie took the littles boys on Dumbo. Then the entire group met up at the Haunted Mansion and went on it together (except Annie and Seth). I was surprised by how much Kyle loved the ride! He came off of it with the biggest grin on his face and said that it was so much fun!

Amy got to ride on Splash Mountain one last time with Ry and Ty while Chris, Annie, Jonathan, and I did some last minute shopping. Jonathan and I found a family ornament for our Christmas tree to remember our amazing trip. We also picked up some princess ornaments and Halloween decorations for my mom.

We got one more nights sleep and headed back home.

We came. We saw. We played.

 Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day and traffic was very smooth.

This was such a fun trip for us kids to be together. Next time it will be even better because our parents will be there and so will the little girls!